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Thursday night, Dr. Douglas Schuch, Bedford County’s superintendent of schools, announced his proposal for the school division’s budget.
The school board will deliberate on his budget this Thursday in a work session at 6 p.m.
“My hope is that our budget decisions during the next couple of months send a clear message to our community about our commitment to empowering learners for future success,” Dr. Schuch said.

During a work session last week, Bedford Town Council briefly revisited funding to outside agencies.
Late last month, Council had made decisions on the amount of funding the town would give various outside agencies that requested funding. Last week, Councilman Steve Rush, who had been absent at the previous meeting, wanted to revisit the decision.
Rush called funding outside agencies “political pork” although he had no problem with providing matching funds to support a grant.

General District Court Judge Randy Krantz dismissed a charge against former Bedford County School Board Chairman Gary Hostutler, following a hearing in GDC last Wednesday.
John Briscoe had filed for a warrant against Hostutler late last fall, charging him with false entry/destroying a public record. The misdemeanor charge related to the alleged removal of information from a Facebook account.

In 1999, after the first school gun massacre in Littleton, Colorado, the National Rifle Association barely waited two weeks to show up in town to hold a rally.
Then-NRA President Charleton Heston stood on stage, held up a rifle, and uttered their macho chant popular at the time, “From my cold dead hands.”

With one week left in the 2018 General Assembly session, agreements are being reached on legislation while conferees are beginning what promises to be the most challenging negotiations on the budget since 2014.
The differences between the House and Senate budgets garnered most of the media coverage this week. What was overlooked in these accounts was a stand taken by myself and several of fellow delegates before formal negotiations began.

This week, Virginia Senate and House of Delegate budget conferees began negotiations after a bipartisan coalition in the Senate voted to substitute the House-backed Obamacare expansion budget with the fiscally responsible ($3.3 billion smaller) Senate plan.

Only one week remains in the scheduled session of the 2018 General Assembly. This means that activity in both chambers is slowing down, as the finishing touches are put on the final versions of bills that have been agreed upon jointly by the House and Senate.